PTI gets boost as 30 influential politicians join party

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) received a powerful boost on Monday when around 30 politicians, including 10 sitting and former parliamentarians and federal ministers such as Jahangir Khan Tareen, Owais Leghari and Sikandar Bosan announced to join the Imran Khan-led party.
“The country’s major political parties have turned into ‘family parties’, and they promote injustice, nepotism and witch-hunting in their ranks,” said Tareen while announcing to join the PTI along with a number of former and sitting members of the national and provincial assemblies from the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), the PML-Nawaz (PML-N), the PML-Functional (PML-F) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Tareen said that he and his supporters did not form their own political party because they found the PTI representative of their ideology. PTI Chairman Imran Khan welcomed the heavyweights, saying the newcomers had joined the party because they could differentiate between right and wrong. “They are defecting from their old parties because they have rejected hereditary politics,” Khan said at a crowded press conference attended by hundreds of supporters of Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
Prominent politicians joining the PTI on Monday include former federal ministers such as Jahangir Khan Tareen, Owais Legahri, Senator Jamal Leghari, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Ishaq Khan Khakwani, Dr GG Jamal, Col (retd) Ghulam Sarwar Cheema, Nusrat Ali Shah, and former PML-N senator Saadia Abbasi. The sitting parliamentarians who did not tender resignations from their seats in the National Assembly include Jahangir Khan Tareen, Owais Leghari and Jamal Leghari. However, the Leghari brothers, along with Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Sikandar Hayat Bosan have submitted their resignations from their positions in the PML-Q. Saadia Abbasi, sister of sitting PML-N parliamentarian Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, is currently abroad and was represented by her son in the press conference.
The PTI chief thanked the newcomers for joining his mission. “These are the people have the experience of constituency politics … I was engaged in parleys with Jahangir Khan Tareen for the last one year, as he is the man for whom politics is not a profession,” Imran said, adding, “The PTI will make him the chairman of the Policy Reforms Committee as he has done a lot of work on reforms.” Rebutting the impression that the PTI had backtracked from its stance of change by inducting old politicians from rival political parties, Imran said he had not compromised on the party’s manifesto and mission. The politicians defecting from other political parties are fed up with the hereditary politics in which a 23 years old lad is made the chairman of a political party, he said in an apparent reference to the PPP.
Responding a question on internal frictions in the PTI over the entries of newcomers, Imran said, “The PTI is not a club, it is an ocean having capacity to accommodate all,” adding that selection for awarding tickets would be done only on merit. Imran claimed that a number of PPP and PML-N leaders were in contact with him but were not joining the party because of feared victimisation by federal and Punjab governments. Meanwhile, popular singer Ibrarul Haq also announced to join the PTI on Monday at his Lahore residence. The pop artist announced his PTI membership along with his brother, Major (r) Israrul Haq –a former MPA of the PML-Q – in the presence of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi. In addition, former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri is also set to join the PTI today (Tuesday) and will make the announcement in a public meeting in Kasur. Other significant personalities joining the PTI on Monday include Sardar Umar Farooq Mian Khel, former MPA from Dera Ismail Khan, Abid Hassan, former development specialist at World Bank, Ahmed Waqar, former federal secretary, Mirza Hamid Hassan, former federal secretary, Hasnain Haider Khan Bosan, former MPA from Multan, Shaukat Hayat Khan Bosan, former MPA from Multan, Muhammad Siddique Khan, former tehsil nazim from Taxila, Muhammad Shafique Khan, MPA from Chakri Rawalpindi (PP-7), Taimoor Masood Akbar, former MPA from Taxila, Javed Lund, former MPA from Dera Ghazi Khan, Aleem Shah, former MPA from Dera Ghazi Khan, Muhammad Qadir Leghari, former tehsil nazim from Dera Ghazi Khan, Rao Shabbir Billo Khan, former vice chairman of Vehari District Council, Makhdoom Alam Bardar Hussain Hashmi, former tehsil nazim from Rahim Yar Khan, and Shahbaz Gul Shinwari.